The ability to provide a remotely actuated connection between a subsea wellhead and a subsea flowline has been advantageous in that it alleviates the necessity of providing divers for making such connections. In very deep water, the use of divers for making such connections has been avoided because of the limited depth tolerance of divers.
Remote connections of this type have been made previously. A typical example of such prior structure is disclosed in the L. E. Williams, Jr. et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,071 issued Dec. 31, 1958, and the L. E. Williams et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,396 issued Dec. 2, 1969, (subsequently reissued as U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,340 on Apr. 25, 1972). In both of these patents a structure is disclosed which includes a loop connecting the christmas tree to a remotely actuated connector and the connector moves axially to connect to a hub on the end of a subsea flowline and such axial movement is along a line which lies substantially in the plane of the loop. Such movement causes a bending of the loop and generates substantial bending stresses therein. In both of these prior patents, the loop ends in a generally horizontal run which connects to the remotely actuated connector and the movement of the connector and the loop end is substantially in the plane of the loop.